Gallery-Of-Archetypes
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introduction to the gallery explore by family search alphabetically introduction to the gallery of archetypes Archetypes are patterns of behavior that manage the flow Every archetype has a positive expression or light side and a of power through your psyche. You contact the interior of negative expression or shadow side. The shadow side may your soul through the language of archetypes, and learning be an unknown part that is not understood, a fear-based to speak this symbolic language gives you access to the aspect that has yet to be integrated. archetypal patterns of your soul. The challenge for all of us The Gallery features the most prevalent archetypes of our is to “know who we are.” culture. Archetypes can be grouped into families who share When touring the Gallery, look for archetypes that reflect a particular relationship to power that defines their identity the patterns that have consistently been with you since you and magnetism. can remember—the patterns that form you at your deepest level. You cannot graft on an archetype simply because you find it attractive to own. explore by family alphabetical list of archetypes addict god prince advocate goddess prostitute: guardian of faith alchemist gossip provocateur angel guide queen artist healer/wounded healer rebel athlete/olympian hedonist rescuer avenger hermit saboteur: guardian of choice beggar hero/heroine sage and crone bully and coward holy fool samaritan caretaker housewife/working mother scribe child: dependent judge seeker and wanderer child: divine king servant/indentured servant child: eternal knight & warrior shape-shifter child: magical liberator slave child: nature lover & don juan spellcaster child: orphan magician/wizard statesman child: wounded martyr storyteller clown mediator strategist companion mentor student damsel & princess mercenary teacher destroyer messiah thief detective midas and miser trickster dilettante missionary vampire disciple monk/nun victim engineer mother virgin entrepreneur mystic visionary and prophet and philanthropist networker warrior exorcist & shaman philosopher father pioneer & explorer femme fatale pirate fool/court jester poet gambler priest/priestess family overviews & descriptions of archetypes: survival family overview The archetypes of the Survival Family—Child, Victim, child: guardian of innocence Saboteur, and Prostitute—are common to all of humanity. These archetypes are the four legs of a table on which We most easily identify with the Child, especially after your Sacred Contract rests. The table symbolizes your several decades of popular books and workshops on the relationship to the ground beneath your feet and to the inner Child. This archetype establishes our perceptions of universal energy that supports your life. life, safety, nurturing, loyalty, and family. These four primary archetypes symbolize your major life The stages of growing up, from coming to the age of challenges because they represent fears and vulnerabilities reason at about seven, to entering adolescence at around that can cause you to negotiate away your power. Survival thirteen, to reaching the official age of adulthood at archetypes influence how you relate to material power, how twenty-one, represent plateaus of spiritual and physical you respond to authority, and the choices you make for maturation. When we are completely dependent, from birth your survival. Failing to confront these forces within you will to age seven, we develop the first skills for taking care of result in selling your soul for safety. ourselves, our bodies and our possessions. At age seven, we begin learning what it means to be responsible not just Exploring your four Survival archetypes makes you for our belongings but for our actions and deeds as well. conscious of your fears and vulnerabilities, and allows you to see how you sabotage your creative opportunities Through ages seven to thirteen we develop further or abort your dreams. The Survival archetypes help you emotionally, as we are introduced to larger issues of to develop the self-esteem and self-reliance necessary to morality, ethics, loyalty and the rules of relationships. successfully fulfill your contract. They are trusted allies and During adolescence we become self-aware, self-conscious, a source of spiritual and material strength; they are the and self-centered. We become aware of, if not consumed intimate companions to your intuition. with, the power of our mind, the pull of our heart, and the passion of our body. During these wild years images How well you deal with these archetypes determines of all that you could be or all that you fear you will never whether your contract will work out through fate or destiny. become also step to the fore. During your late teens and Fate is what happens when you cave under fear or when early twenties, you discover your vulnerabilities as an adult you relinquish power over your life to others because you along with your strengths and talents. You make substantial want to be taken care of. Fate also occurs when you fear choices about your life, and even though you will doubtless the consequences of making a choice that would empower change your mind many times, or circumstances will you, but would disturb the safety net that you have created reroute you, this is the beginning of your real contract with for yourself around you. Your archetypes can help you the world of physical responsibility separate from your tribe. transcend the shadow belief that “everyone has a price” and allow you to see that you are not for sale. Finally the power of spirit emerges around the age of twenty-one, as you begin to see beyond the physical If one of your survival archetypes is particularly needy or aspect of life to find symbolic meaning in your actions, expressing its shadow nature, then your other archetypes from political activism and social realism to love and are going to suffer. They will be neglected because part spiritual exploration. Around the age of twenty-eight of you is consumed by the “out of control” archetype. you naturally transition into the next cycle of your life as There are people who are consumed by their Victim and an interconnected, responsible adult. The process just others who are consumed by their Child and it completely described is, of course, how we ideally mature. Because influences their other eight personal archetypes. of the complex challenges of everyday life, however, this The more conscious you are about the patterns that spiritual maturation varies for most people. influence your behavior, the more likely it is that your From an archetypal point of view, when these cycles are choices and the lessons you get from them will be positive. not followed in some way, adults will find it difficult if not If your choices are formed only by your unconscious, impossible to be responsible for themselves in the physical however, and you are unaware of the archetypal energies world and to create successful relationships. Your inner influencing you, you will be more likely to act out of Child will exhibit aspects of the Wounded or Orphaned insecurity and defensiveness. Child and will reflect that somewhere along the line you By remaining aware of the archetypal energies, you stay did not receive the nurturing necessary for you to become conscious of both your divinity and your potential in the responsible and independent. And so you may spend the everyday world. Through your archetypes, you will find early years of adulthood trying to heal and compensate for your own “middle road,” the path of your Sacred Contract. these deficiencies. family overviews & descriptions of archetypes: survival family overview child: guardian of innocence (cont’d) At the same time, because every one of the Child aspects is present in various degrees of strength in every psyche, Confronting the Child archetype within you awakens a similar patterns often overlap, making it hard to distinguish new relationship with life, a fresh beginning. Regardless of which one you relate to most intensely. You may find that which aspect of the Child you relate to most intimately, this you relate equally to the Orphan and the Wounded Child, archetypal pattern brings you into contact with untapped or to the Eternal and the Nature Child. When this is the resources connected to creative thought. This is the core of case, choose one and include the specific qualities that the Innocent or Magical Child—the sensation that anything you relate to in the other archetype as you investigate the and everything is possible. psyche of this archetype in your life. The mature personality of the Child archetype nurtures Each of the variants of the Child archetype is characterized that part of us that yearns to be lighthearted and innocent, by certain tendencies, including shadow tendencies. The expecting the wonders of tomorrow, regardless of age. This lesson of the Child archetype is to hone responsibility in part of our nature contributes greatly to our ability to sense you—that is its job. If it has one specific task in you, it is the playfulness of our lives, balancing the seriousness of to always grind the wheel of responsibility. It is to always adult responsibilities. The balanced Child is a delight to be refine responsibility, because all of us would prefer to be around because the energy that flows from this part of our taken care of by something other than ourselves. All of personality is infectious and brings out the best in others, as us would love to have someone else show up and say, well as in ourselves. “Here’s your weekly allowance, your bills are paid, do what Everyone has expressions of each one of these aspects of you want.” But that is just not the reality of the journey of the Child within their psyche, although one aspect is usually humanity on this planet.